(BALTIMORE) — Marilyn Mosby, state’s attorney for Baltimore City, who made the decision to drop the murder case against Adnan Syed, said on Wednesday that her office’s re-investigation of the case had raised “major red flags.”
“Our review of the case quickly turned from making a mere recommendation for release to a re-investigation to claim actual innocence,” Mosby said on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Wednesday, “because there were major red flags.”
Prosecutors in Maryland dropped charges against Syed, the man who was convicted of killing his former girlfriend in 2000, a case made popular by the 2014 “Serial” podcast that investigated issues with the prosecution.
Mosby said her office was approached by the public defender’s office about the case.
“As we started to dig into the case, one of the things that we saw was not all the evidence was tested,” Mosby said. “The first round of DNA testing we did didn’t produce results, but following the second round of DNA, we found that there was a DNA mixture of multiple contributors. And they excluded Adnan Syed.”
Coupled with the “integrity” of the investigation, there were “so many red flags,” she said.
“This was really the nail in the coffin that assured me, which is why I instructed my prosecutors to dismiss the case yesterday,” Mosby said.
The murder case of Hae Min Lee, Syed’s ex-girlfriend, is open and pending, Mosby said.
Mosby said she never listened to the “Serial” podcast.
(NEW YORK) — A man arrested in Georgia has confessed to murdering five people in South Carolina, authorities announced Tuesday.
James Douglas Drayton, 24, was taken into custody in Georgia’s Burke County on Monday morning, after he allegedly committed an armed robbery and fled the scene in a stolen vehicle that authorities said was registered to a family member of one of the victims in South Carolina’s Spartanburg County, about 145 miles away.
“He confessed to the crime,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said during a press conference on Tuesday. “He basically said he’d been hearing voices. Not sure what that means for him, but he knew he’d been using meth and had been up for like four days. Hadn’t slept in four days, probably not thinking.”
The murders took place over the weekend in the town of Inman at a home that Wright described as a “safe haven” for drug use. Deputies from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office responded to a death call at the residence on Bobo Drive on Sunday evening. Upon arrival, deputies discovered four people who had been shot to death — identified as Thomas Ellis Anderson, 37, Adam Daniel Morley, 32, Mark Allen Hewitt, 59, and Roman Christean Megael Rocha, 19.
A fifth victim was found still showing signs of life and was transported to Spartanburg Medical Center, where they died. Their identity was not released because their family has not yet been notified, according to the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.
“This is the largest single murder we’ve had in Spartanburg County,” Wright told reporters.
Wright said all five victims were drug users and were known to Drayton, who investigators believe had been staying at the home for about two weeks. The victims were also living there at the time of the incident and investigators located belongings with Drayton’s name, according to the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.
“Wouldn’t have mattered to me if they were church members and never did any of that stuff, or they were heroin addicts. They were still somebody’s son, brother, friend, dad,” Wright said. “They are all a child of God — they didn’t deserve what they got.”
After the shootings, Drayton allegedly stole a car from the home, which he crashed during a brief, high-speed chase in Georgia, where he was apprehended and is now awaiting extradition to South Carolina. He will be charged with five counts of murder, Wright said.
Drayton gave investigators a “full confession” about the murders, providing “specific information” about the crime scene, including the location of the five victims, according to the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.
“I don’t have answers as to why. He said some things in his interviews that I’m going to hold on to because his attorney probably needs to process some of this stuff,” Wright said. “It’s awful.”
Burke County’s online jail records did not list an attorney for Drayton.
Although the suspect was arrested, Wright said the victims “did not get justice at all.”
“Just because we have someone in custody doesn’t make things better for these families,” he added. “It just means that they don’t have to wonder.”
(PHILADELPHIA) — Three members of a SWAT team were shot in North Philadelphia while serving a warrant early on Wednesday morning, ABC News’ WPVI-TV reported.
The officers were taken to Jefferson University Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition.
(NEW YORK) — Damage from weather and climate disasters in 2022 could exceed $100 billion in the U.S. by the end of the year, according to estimations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
So far this year, 15 events — including the recent Hurricanes Fiona and Ian — have incurred damages of more than $1 billion, NOAA announced on Tuesday. It is the eighth consecutive year in which the U.S. has endured 10 or more billion-dollar disaster events.
The current tally for 2022 is $29.3 billion in destruction, but the costs from Fiona, Ian and the wildfires in the West are still being tallied, according to NOAA.
More than 340 people have died in these events, but death tolls could rise as search and rescue crews continue to comb through battered portions of Southwest Florida and Puerto Rico.
Ian made landfall in Florida on Sept. 28 as a strong Category 4 hurricane and tracked across the state before exiting into the Atlantic Ocean and making another landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 storm. Entire neighborhoods on Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach were decimated with storm surge and up to 150 mph winds.
On Sept. 18, Fiona brought major flooding, damage and loss of life to Puerto Rico — five years after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 338 weather and climate disasters in which the overall damages exceeded $1 billion, according to NOAA. The total cost of those 338 events exceeds $2.295 trillion.
Climate scientists warn that extreme weather events such as hurricanes, wildfires and drought will become more severe as global temperatures continue to rise.
(SAN ANTONIO) — A former San Antonio police officer was charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant on Tuesday in the shooting of a teenager last week, according to the San Antonio Police Department Homicide Unit.
The department fired Officer James Brennand after bodycam footage showed him shooting a teenager who was eating a hamburger in a McDonald’s parking lot in Texas.
Brennand turned himself in, police said during a press conference Tuesday night. There were two charges of aggravated assault because of the two passengers in the car, police said.
The 17-year-old, identified by police as Erik Cantu, was shot multiple times and remains hospitalized. He was in critical condition as of Tuesday night, police said.
The SAPD terminated Brennand last Wednesday over the incident due to his actions, which violated department tactics, training and procedures, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.
According to police, Officer Brennand was responding to a disturbance call on Oct. 2 when he noticed a vehicle he thought had fled from him the night before during an attempted stop.
The footage shows the officer approaching the car and opening the door, when he sees Cantu eating a hamburger alongside a female passenger and orders him out.
Police said the officer reported the car door hit him as the teen started to reverse the car.
Bodycam video shows the officer firing 10 times at the moving vehicle before chasing after it on foot.
Police said that the passenger in the vehicle was not injured during the incident.
In a statement to ABC News on Sunday, Cantu’s family, through his attorney, said the teenager is on life support and fighting to stay alive.
“We thank you for the heartfelt thoughts on the status of Erik’s recovery. We will inform you that he’s still in critical condition and literally fighting for his life every minute of the day as his body has endured a tremendous amount of trauma,” Cantu’s attorney, Brian Powers, said. “He is still on life support. We need all the blessing we can receive at this time. We kindly ask for privacy beyond this update as this is a delicate moment in our lives and we are focusing on one thing and that’s getting him home.”
The San Antonio Police Officer’s Association had no comment immediately following Brennand’s dismissal from the force, but in a new statement to ABC News, the president of the union, Danny Diaz, said that the organization will not represent Brennand because he had not completed his 1-year probationary period for new officers at the time of the shooting.
“New police recruits must complete a 1-year probationary period before becoming eligible for benefits provided by the union,” Diaz said. “We understand the San Antonio Police Department’s decision to terminate Officer James Brennand but will refrain from further comment until a full investigation is completed.”
(MENLO PARK, Calif.) — A tree trimmer has died after falling into a wood chipper while he was working, police say.
The incident occurred at approximately 12:53 p.m. on Tuesday in Menlo Park, California, approximately 30 miles south of San Francisco, when the Menlo Park Police Department responded to a report of an incident involving a tree trimmer who had managed to accidentally fall into a wood chipper on the 900 block of Peggy Lane while he was working, police say.
“When police units arrived on scene, a male subject was found deceased from injuries sustained in the incident,” the Menlo Park Police Department said in a statement confirming the fatality.
Authorities from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office also responded to the tragic accident. The street was shut down while authorities conducted their investigation but all other roads in the area were open to traffic during this period.
The worker’s identity has not yet been released and is currently under the jurisdiction of the coroner’s office while they notify the male victim’s next of kin, authorities said. It is unclear when they will be making a further statement on the identity of the victim and the coroner’s office did not release any further details on the incident.
The Menlo Park Police Department confirmed that his death will be investigated by the Cal/OSHA Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
(NEW YORK) — A man in South Carolina was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing three family members, including a local councilman, the Horry County Police Department said.
Police arrested Matthew Allen DeWitt, 25, on Monday regarding the triple shooting.
The suspect was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, online arrest records show.
Horry police arrived at a home near Conway, South Carolina, on Sunday afternoon to investigate a death where they discovered the body of 52-year-old Natasha Stevens.
Later that evening, police conducted a welfare check outside of Columbia, South Carolina, where they found two people with “apparent gunshot wounds,” the Horry Police Department said on Facebook.
Police identified the two people as Gloria DeWitt, 52, and James DeWitt, II, 52.
According to the Town of Atlantic Beach website, James “Jim” DeWitt II served as a councilman for the Atlantic Beach community.
Atlantic Beach did not respond to a request for comment.
According to its website, the predominately Black town is known as the “Black Pearl” and was a refuge for African Americans in the area who faced discrimination in the 1930s.
(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed legislation Tuesday establishing how the city will make Times Square a gun-free zone even as the state law underpinning the policy was overturned in federal court.
Adams said the 56 million tourists predicted to visit New York City this year should not have to “live in fear” as they walk through Times Sqaure, often deemed the “crossroads of the world.”
“We will not allow them to live in fear or distrust that someone is walking around with a gun ready to harm them.”
Adams, who owns three guns, said the designation of Times Square as a sensitive location was not intended to punish lawful gun owners. Rather, he and other city leaders said it is untenable to have so many guns in a place as densely packed as Times Square.
“It is plain good old common sense that no one should have a gun in Times Square,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who joined the mayor for the bill signing.
The law defines the boundaries of the Times Square sensitive location and authorizes the NYPD to implement it.
Last week, a federal judge in Syracuse struck down portions of the state’s new gun law, including the part that designates all of Times Square as off limits to conceal carry.
The state plans to appeal the ruling and has sought to keep the law in effect while the appeal is heard and until it is decided
“We just have to wait and see what happens,” said Steven Lewis of the city’s law department.
(NEW YORK) — A New York City psychiatrist who pleaded guilty to plotting the murder-by-sledgehammer death of her child’s father was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in state prison, but not before a dramatic moment in court in which Pamela Buchbinder tried to take back her plea, claiming she was maced by guards and got a contact high on the prison bus from people smoking K2.
The judge pressed ahead with sentencing and imposed the prearranged prison term of 11 years followed by five years of supervised release. Buchbinder has already served 5 years in prison.
Buchbinder, 52, admitted to burglary and attempted assault charges for manipulating her 19-year-old cousin, Jacob Nolan, to kill Michael Weiss at Weiss’s home office in November of 2012. The plot followed a custody battle over their then- 5-year-old child.
Weiss spoke in court before Buchbinder’s sentencing about his ongoing struggles.
“While I am grateful that this day has arrived, it has not brought me the sense of relief, or the feeling of closure that I had hoped it would. Although it has been almost 10 years since I was attacked, I still struggle with the emotional and physical scars of what happened to me on November 12, 2012,” Weiss said.
Buchbinder, who was a practicing psychiatrist, was called an evil genius in court, a label her attorney rejected.
“I don’t know her to be evil or a genius — just statements that were opportunistic,” defense attorney Eric Franz said.
Buchbinder accompanied Nolan to Home Depot on West 23rd Street the night before the November 2012, attack and paid cash for a 10-pound sledgehammer. Buchbinder also gave her cousin a kitchen knife to use in the attack.
Buchbinder drew a map for Nolan and instructed him how to enter Weiss’s building. Once inside, Nolan swung a sledgehammer repeatedly at Weiss and stabbed him repeatedly.
“I still find it difficult to understand how any of this could have happened, and I struggle to comprehend the type of hatred that would lead someone to plan such a deliberate, personal and brutal attack,” Weiss said.
In 2016, Nolan was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 9 ½ years in New York state prison.
(PARKLAND, Fla.) — The fate of confessed Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz will soon be in the hands of the jurors who will determine if Cruz will be sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison for carrying out the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
Closing arguments in the penalty phase trial were held Tuesday, more than four years after Cruz, then 19, gunned down 14 students and three staff members at his former Florida high school. Cruz pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
As parents of the slain children looked on, prosecutor Michael Satz said Tuesday that the testimony and evidence presented at the trial revealed the “unspeakable, horrific brutality and the unrelentless cruelty” carried out on Feb. 14, 2018.
“It’s been said that what one writes, and what one says, is a window to someone’s soul,” Satz said in his closing argument. “Some of the remarks the defendant wrote on his YouTube were: ‘No mercy, no questions, double tap. I’m going to…murder children…I’d love to see the families suffer.'”
“He’s thinking ahead,” Satz said, by “not only looking to inflict pain” on the victim, but also “anticipating how that pain, fear and death…is gonna affect the families.”
Cruz researched previous mass shootings, Satz said, and planned a “systematic massacre.”
Satz recounted how Cruz’s phone revealed a video filmed three days before the carnage, in which Cruz said: “I’m going to be the next school shooter…my goal is to kill at least 20 people.”
“He wanted to be known,” Satz said.
Satz highlighted how two of the four gunshot wounds to 14-year-old victim Gina Montalto were contact wounds, meaning the end of Cruz’s AR-15-style rifle “was right up against her chest and right up on her abdomen.”
Satz told the jury that one of Cruz’s YouTube comments was “I don’t mind shooting a girl in the chest,” adding, “that’s exactly what he did to Gina Montalto.”
Cruz fired 70 shots on Building 12’s first floor, Satz said, and the barrage of bullets prompted students and teachers on the second floor to take cover.
Cruz fired just six shots on the second floor, because he couldn’t find any targets, Satz said.
Cruz fired 61 rounds on the third floor, Satz said, including into the back of geography teacher Scott Beigel. The 35-year-old died trying to shepherd students to safety into his classroom.
Also among those killed on the third floor was 15-year-old Peter Wang, who was shot a total of 12 times, Satz said. While Wang was lying on the ground injured, Cruz shot him in the head four times, the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Melisa McNeill stressed in her closing argument that Cruz already pled guilty. McNeill admitted Cruz was responsible and planned the massacre.
Cruz “knew the difference between right and wrong that day — and he chose wrong,” she said.
But the defense argued Cruz suffered lifelong developmental delays that traced back to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Cruz’s birth mother was a drug and alcohol addict who drank and used drugs up until six weeks before Cruz was born, McNeill said in her opening argument. Cruz was “poisoned in the womb” and his “brain was irretrievably broken,” she said.
The Broward County School Board classified Cruz as “developmentally delayed in all areas” and said he had “a language impairment,” McNeill noted. The district classified him as an “ESE” student, or a special needs child, she said.
Satz countered in his closing argument, saying that doctor testimony proved Cruz doesn’t have a mental disease, but an antisocial personality. Cruz’s adoptive mother took him to multiple doctors and therapists, Satz said, adding that Cruz “had the ability to behave — he just didn’t.”
McNeill argued Tuesday that prosecutors tried to “dehumanize” Cruz.
“What they have done is slapped on a label that says he only has a personality disorder… but that doesn’t describe all of Nikolas’ behavior,” she said. “It’s easier to call someone antisocial…than to accept what Nikolas Cruz really is: a broken, brain-damaged, mentally ill young man. Do we kill brain-damaged, mentally ill, broken people?”
“He deserves to be punished,” McNeill said, adding, “Sentencing Nikolas to death will change absolutely nothing. It will not bring back those 17 innocent victims that he viciously murdered.”
The jury’s decision must be unanimous for the death penalty.
“The individual, moral decision that you will be making about whether Nikolas should live or die is not a decision that should be made in an emotional state,” she told the jurors. “Please don’t ever feel pressured to reach a verdict — take your time…You must carefully consider and weigh the evidence, realizing…that you literally have another human being’s life at stake.”
Fred Guttenberg, father of 14-year-old victim Jaime Guttenberg, tweeted Tuesday morning that he hopes the trial “will conclude this week.”
“This trial has been harder on us than you could imagine, and we are ready to have this in our rear view,” he said.
